Biography

Cédric Tiberghien’s flourishing international career spans five continents taking him to some of the world’s most prestigious halls, including, most recently, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Centre in Washington, the Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and Barbican in London, the Salle Pleyel and the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, Berlin’s Bechstein Hall, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, the Sydney Opera and Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan and Asahi Halls.

Highlights of the coming seasons include a debut with the London Symphony Orchestra, a major residency wih the Strasbourg Philharmonic, return engagements with the CBSO and the Hamburger Philharmoniker, and the continuation of his complete Beethoven concerto cycle with Enrique Mazzola and the Orchestre National d’Ile de France in Paris.

Recital plans include debuts in Chicago (Chicago Symphony Presents), Vienna (Konzerthaus), Amsterdam (Muziekgebouw), Seoul (Kumho Art Hall), several projects in the Wigmore Hall’s prestigious Master Series in London and a return to the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris.

Cédric Tiberghien’s latest CD release is a recital disc of Szymanowski’s music (Hyperion, February 2014) which attracted unanimous praise from the international music press (“A masterclass in refined virtuosity” – Gramophone; “Few players of this music of this music combine such clarity and articulation with shimmering sparkle and virtuosic flair. This is sophisticated pianism” – BBC Music Magazine). His discography also includes César Franck’s Symphonic Variations and Les Djinns, with the Liege Philharmonic conducted by François-Xavier Roth, Brahms’s Concerto No.1 with the BBC Symphony and Jiri Belohlavek, and six recital discs on Harmonia Mundi: Debussy, Beethoven Variations, Bach Partitas, Chopin and Brahms Ballades, Brahms Hungarian Dances, and a recital of Chopin Mazurkas.

Cédric Tiberghien studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Frédéric Aguessy and Gérard Frémy and was awarded the Premier Prix in 1992, aged just 17. He was then a prize winner at several major international piano competitions (Bremen, Dublin, Tel Aviv, Geneva, Milan), culminating with the 1st Prize at the prestigious Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris in 1998, alongside with five special awards, including the Audience Award and the Orchestra Award.

Cédric Tiberghien is also a dedicated chamber musician, with regular partners including violinist Alina Ibragimova, violist Antoine Tamestit and cellist Pieter Wispelwey. His passion for chamber music is reflected in numerous recordings: his discography with Alina Ibragimova includes Schubert (Hyperion), Ravel and Lekeu (Hyperion), Szymanowski (Hyperion), and the complete Beethoven violin sonatas (Wigmore Live). He also recently recorded a disc of French melodies with Sophie Karthauser (Cypres).

Press

'His Debussy – four preludes from Books 1 and 2, "Masques," "D'un cahier d'esquisses" and "L'isle joyeuse" – revealed a penetrating musical intelligence and an acute sensitivity to nuance. Pages of slow, hushed meditation gave way to explosions of finely controlled bravura, nowhere more mesmerizing than in "L'isle joyeuse."' Chigaco Tribune

"Tiberghien sumptuously sustained the protracted melodic lines around Ravel’s busily shimmering accompaniment, which he never allowed to become intrusive. His broad dynamic range shone through between the thundering climax that represents the water nymph’s amorous rapture and a graceful diminuendo as she returned disappointed to the waves". Chicago Classical Review

"In his Toronto debut at Koerner Hall on Tuesday night, French pianist Cédric Tiberghien proved that the greatest storytellers do not shout, but speak softly. There are few pianists in the world who can play as softly yet clearly as he did in a program that mixed French and Austrian repertoire for the Toronto Summer Music Festival. (...) It is truly rare to find a pianist who can juggle three even four separate lines of music at the same time, giving each a slightly different emphasis and colour. It made the four pieces by Debussy (two from the official program, two as encores) shimmer, glow and undulate with uncommon sensuousness. (...) both exemplary singer and sensitive accompanist rolled into one dazzling set of 10 fingers The Star

"An apparent natural with Saint-Saens, Tiberghien had a lock on all the score’s most fetching traits, channelling both its innocence and its volatility. To the work’s playful skittishness, the pianist brought a fantastically light, spidery touch, and where the music turned dark and thunderous, Tiberghien too morphed into a brooding, rapturous poet."

The first movement became a vast cadenza with dramatic orchestral punctuation that Tiberghien seemed to be creating on the spot — like a ruminative improvisation by an organist (a role Saint-Saëns filled for 19 years at L’église de la Madeleine). The second movement scherzo was gentle and spacious, the third a combustible tarantella. Tiberghien played with lucidity and flexibility, handsomely varying his tone to suit the mood of the moment." Cleveland.com

“very impressive BSO debut. He showed a flair for interpretive risk …Tiberghien alternated between a sizable, almost declamatory sound and an ethereal stage whisper." Boston Globe

“the highlight was a fresh and dazzling account of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, with the brilliant French pianist Cédric Tiberghien, who played with rich, rounded tone in the lyrical stretches and fleet, crisp articulation in the spiraling, jazzy, virtuosic passages" New York Times

"Cédric Tiberghien’s mastery of Messiaen’s piano part was passionate and impressive, at times dominating the orchestra, at other times weaving in and out of the orchestral fabric adding life and color to the finished piece.’ Washington Times

‘…pianist Cedric Tiberghien, who was almost spookily unfazed by the wildest demands of the keyboard part and who summoned a great deal of color and expressive power’ The Baltimore Sun

"He probed each piece with the most refined curiosity, to revelatory effect. Some Mazurkas seemed to grow up out of the earth, others became an interplay of constantly shifting perspectives; his rubatos had the most pursuavive push and pull, and his cantabiles were ineffably sweet. " International Piano, Jan/Feb 2011